Obama: “I’m Not Involved With Drone Policies”

(Politico) President Barack Obama’s defense to Democratic senators complaining about how little his administration has told Congress about the legal justifications for his drone policy: Dick Cheney was worse.

That’s part of what two senators in the room recounted of Obama’s response when, near the outset of his closed-door session with Senate Democratic conference on Tuesday, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) confronted the president over the administration’s refusal for two years to show Congressional intelligence committees Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel memos justifying the use of lethal force against American terror suspects abroad.

I’m amused that (PINO) Obama has compared himself to the former Vice President. A guy who Constitutionally has no power other than breaking a tie vote in the Senate.

In response to Rockefeller’s critique, Obama said he’s not involved in drafting such memos, the senators told POLITICO. He also tried to assure his former colleagues that his administration is more open to oversight than that of President George W. Bush, whom many Democratic senators attacked for secrecy and for expanding executive power in the national security realm.

The buck stops Somewhere Else. This is from a guy who personally picks the Jihadi recipients of drone strikes overseas, yet has no involvement with any drone memos when it comes to using them here in the United States. Yet, his administration blocked, let’s face it, Obama blocked, the release of all those memos which he had no involvement with to the Senate. Hey, remember all those times Cheney blocked the release of material to Congress? You don’t? Can’t find any stories about that? Weird!

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday morning, chairman Patrick Leahy suggested he’d recently raised the issue with the president. The Vermont Democrat also reiterated his threat to subpoena one of the classified legal memos if the White House won’t fork it over. Leahy voted against Brennan’s confirmation in what the Judiciary Committee chairman said was a protest over the administration’s refusal to show the relevant memos to his committee, which oversees the Justice Department.

”Every time I asked the question of various people, the attorney general, the president and others, it’s always somebody else’s department,” Leahy said. “This is something we’re very serious about – one [opinion] especially this committee may end up subpoenaing if we can’t get it.”

Perhaps Leahy should directly ask (PINO) Obama who the actual president is, and where the buck stops, who’s in charge. That would be an amusing answer.

Let’s not forget that Obama also blamed the Secret Service for cancelling White House tours. Hey, it’s not like the POTUS could tell them “no” or something, right?